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I'd hoped the psychic would be wearing a colorful flowing gown, headscarf, and jangly gold bangles like the woman pictured on a sign in front of the otherwise nondescript little white house in Sandusky, Ohio. But the psychic who answered the door looked more like a librarian than a gypsy.
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"Home," Crystal says, drawing one hand to her chest as the other catches a welling tear before it spills down her face. "Just speaking that word now is enough to make my heart flutter." After four months sleeping on fold-out cots and air mattresses at a succession of different churches, Crystal, husband Robert, and four children--aged four through thirteen--have finally found their way "home." Of course this story holds elements of heartbreak, exploitation, and outrage, though their own indelible recession memories will more likely recall fires of adversity forging familial bonds as strong as steel, and the boundless endurance and faith these times compelled them to discover within themselves.
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Working on this piece began as an effort to determine the top ten best things about the recession, but the responses received via Twitter necessitated I lengthen the list. So what follows are nineteen reasons to love the recession, as suggested by my Tweeple. You may agree with some, disagree with others, and laugh at a few. Feel free to add your own in the comments, send me a suggestion via Twitter @recessionroadie, or email an idea to recessionroad@gmail.com.
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"For me the recession and getting laid off has been transformative. It brings to a head what I really value." says Alex Gargarita, 45-year-old single father of two. Alex is one of thousands left jobless because of the tech industry contraction in Silicon Valley, but rather than viewing the career disruption as hardship or professional setback, he plans to use his downtime as an opportunity to reinvent his life and self.
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Elizabeth looks weary, pale, and drawn, gently wringing her hands, toying with the hospital admittance bracelet still encircling her wrist. Slumped in the kind of canvas camping chair that makes any other sitting position a feat of strenuous exertion, Elizabeth closely watches Charles, her husband of forty-one years, as he bashes around inside the donated tent, arranging their borrowed bedding. Their 5-piece set of matching maroon luggage might not all fit inside, but the couple will have a roof-of-sorts for the night, sleeping side-by-side as two of the country's newest homeless citizens.
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"These days, I want to do what makes me happy. It's not about the money anymore," Edwin Duterte explains as we're talking over chilled sangria in a Pasadena bar. Edwin was laid off from commercial real estate in January 2008. The 39-year-old moved back home to live with his parents this year after paying rent became difficult. With savings depleted, his now-unaffordable health insurance will expire this month. Despite his personal circumstances, what makes Edwin happy these days is doing what he can to help other unemployed people find jobs. Read More
In early June, a journalism professor and three students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln packed photographic equipment, food, and supplies into a Chevy Suburban and 23-foot Jay Feather travel trailer, setting off on a two-month journey to document the recession's effect on their state. Traversing small towns of rural Nebraska, these students absorbed the kind of transformative lessons about community, hospitality, and humanity that could never be taught in a classroom.
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Columbia, SC: The news vans lined up outside the South Carolina State House on Thursday, along with a bright pink Chevy Suburban advertising The Cheat Book, which advertises itself as "The Ultimate Guide on How to Cheat on Your Woman." I doubt it has a sections on how not to formulate a patently dumb cover story or use a publicly-funded trip to visit your mistress if you're the chief executive of a state, but maybe that will come in the 2nd edition.
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Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is making news today with his lengthy criticism of some projects funded by stimulus money. I can't remember a single time I shared a millimeter of common ground with the conservative Oklahoma Senator, but I have to admit similar thoughts occurred to me when I drove past this massive sign advertising the source of funding for road work on I-64 near Hurricane, West Virginia. Picture after the jump.
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Results tagged “recession”
I'd hoped the psychic would be wearing a colorful flowing gown, headscarf, and jangly gold bangles like the woman pictured on a sign in front of the otherwise nondescript little white house in Sandusky, Ohio. But the psychic who answered the door looked more like a librarian than a gypsy.
"Home," Crystal says, drawing one hand to her chest as the other catches a welling tear before it spills down her face. "Just speaking that word now is enough to make my heart flutter." After four months sleeping on fold-out cots and air mattresses at a succession of different churches, Crystal, husband Robert, and four children--aged four through thirteen--have finally found their way "home." Of course this story holds elements of heartbreak, exploitation, and outrage, though their own indelible recession memories will more likely recall fires of adversity forging familial bonds as strong as steel, and the boundless endurance and faith these times compelled them to discover within themselves.Read More
Working on this piece began as an effort to determine the top ten best things about the recession, but the responses received via Twitter necessitated I lengthen the list. So what follows are nineteen reasons to love the recession, as suggested by my Tweeple. You may agree with some, disagree with others, and laugh at a few. Feel free to add your own in the comments, send me a suggestion via Twitter @recessionroadie, or email an idea to recessionroad@gmail.com.Read More
09/23/09 7:13 PM
More Recession Re-set: "I'm Tired of Slaving; I Want to Live"
"For me the recession and getting laid off has been transformative. It brings to a head what I really value." says Alex Gargarita, 45-year-old single father of two. Alex is one of thousands left jobless because of the tech industry contraction in Silicon Valley, but rather than viewing the career disruption as hardship or professional setback, he plans to use his downtime as an opportunity to reinvent his life and self.
Having just passed the 100-day mark of the Recession Roadtrip, I decided it's time for a little statistical accounting of my journey thus far. So click through if you'd like to learn factoids such as how many miles driven and states visited, mileage the rental Prius has been getting, or the number of senior citizens I've seen riding a bike in nothing more than Speedos (picture included!).
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Elizabeth looks weary, pale, and drawn, gently wringing her hands, toying with the hospital admittance bracelet still encircling her wrist. Slumped in the kind of canvas camping chair that makes any other sitting position a feat of strenuous exertion, Elizabeth closely watches Charles, her husband of forty-one years, as he bashes around inside the donated tent, arranging their borrowed bedding. Their 5-piece set of matching maroon luggage might not all fit inside, but the couple will have a roof-of-sorts for the night, sleeping side-by-side as two of the country's newest homeless citizens.Read More
On a day most California educators spent organizing supplies and going over lesson plans in preparation for the first day of school, Jean and Michael Cantius* waded through paperwork to apply for a loan modification. The Cantius household is struggling under a double-punch of the California budget crunch: Jean is one of 2,000-plus teachers the Los Angeles Unified School District could not afford to bring back for full-time positions this fall, and Michael had to accept a severe pay cut in order to keep his administration job. If their application for loan modification under Obama's mortgage relief program is rejected, Jean, Michael and their two children will lose their home. Read More
"These days, I want to do what makes me happy. It's not about the money anymore," Edwin Duterte explains as we're talking over chilled sangria in a Pasadena bar. Edwin was laid off from commercial real estate in January 2008. The 39-year-old moved back home to live with his parents this year after paying rent became difficult. With savings depleted, his now-unaffordable health insurance will expire this month. Despite his personal circumstances, what makes Edwin happy these days is doing what he can to help other unemployed people find jobs. Read More
In early June, a journalism professor and three students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln packed photographic equipment, food, and supplies into a Chevy Suburban and 23-foot Jay Feather travel trailer, setting off on a two-month journey to document the recession's effect on their state. Traversing small towns of rural Nebraska, these students absorbed the kind of transformative lessons about community, hospitality, and humanity that could never be taught in a classroom.
As proprietors of one of the oldest comedy clubs in the country, the Glazer family has experience negotiating economic minefields that have destroyed lesser characters in the entertainment industry over the past 35 years. While a number of other Kansas City clubs has altered format or simply shut down recently, Stanford and Sons has endured by adopting a creative new business model--a change that owner Craig Glazer suggests is marking a new era in the comedic profession and entertainment culture.
Columbia, SC: The news vans lined up outside the South Carolina State House on Thursday, along with a bright pink Chevy Suburban advertising The Cheat Book, which advertises itself as "The Ultimate Guide on How to Cheat on Your Woman." I doubt it has a sections on how not to formulate a patently dumb cover story or use a publicly-funded trip to visit your mistress if you're the chief executive of a state, but maybe that will come in the 2nd edition.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is making news today with his lengthy criticism of some projects funded by stimulus money. I can't remember a single time I shared a millimeter of common ground with the conservative Oklahoma Senator, but I have to admit similar thoughts occurred to me when I drove past this massive sign advertising the source of funding for road work on I-64 near Hurricane, West Virginia. Picture after the jump.
06/12/09 11:11 AM
Where's Christina?
The cataclysmic hemorrhaging of the US economy broke the spirit and bank accounts of Americans across the country. Job loss, bankruptcy, and home foreclosures mark only the measurable statistics representing crushed aspirations, helplessness, grief, desolation and broken-hearts of lives swallowed whole by a voracious monster experts like to call a recession.
"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places," Ernest Hemingway wrote in Farewell to Arms. This morning I begin a quest to discover that well of strength I believe still resides in the American people and communities most devastated by the economic downturn.
For the next four months I will travel the back roads and State highways through the 48 contiguous United States, uncovering stories of economic survival and endurance. In diners, bars, bingo halls and coffee shops, I seek those Americans who have lost everything--except hope.
"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places," Ernest Hemingway wrote in Farewell to Arms. This morning I begin a quest to discover that well of strength I believe still resides in the American people and communities most devastated by the economic downturn.
For the next four months I will travel the back roads and State highways through the 48 contiguous United States, uncovering stories of economic survival and endurance. In diners, bars, bingo halls and coffee shops, I seek those Americans who have lost everything--except hope.
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